HW Studio Architects - Casa Tao - Shade as a Space for Life - Puerto Vallarta - Mexico

2025-09-22

Some houses are not designed—they are remembered. Casa Tao was not born from a technical drawing, but from the silent memory of those who inhabit it. It is a house that does not seek to respond to an image, but to a life. Or rather: to a way of living.

Gustavo grew up in a humble house made more of effort than of materials. The son of farmers and craft merchants—people with rough hands and generous eyes—who, though their studies were prematurely interrupted, managed to instill in him a desire to understand the world. He grew up in Puerto Vallarta, a place on the Pacific coast of Mexico, where sun and humidity define the rhythm of the days, and where shade is not an accident, but a precious asset—a true refuge. From the beginning, the house needed to translate that need for shelter, for seclusion, for coolness. The concept of shade was not understood here merely as a physical phenomenon, but as an emotional condition: a promise of calm, of breath, of silent protection against a clamorous world.

But it was Gustavo’s personality—as rich and complex as the place of his childhood—that deeply shaped the design. With uncommon curiosity, he is a man who has made self-taught knowledge his path. Philosophy, architecture, music, photography: we get the impression that little is foreign to him. His library, filled with special editions by Alberto Campo Baeza, Fan Ho, Tarkovsky, an more reveals an affection for formal clarity, for essential geometry, for quiet courtyards that converse with emptiness and light. Speaking with him is to immerse oneself in a view open to the world—deeply sensitive, and at the same time precise.

His story with Cynthia, the second inhabitant, is also an essential part of this architecture. Together with their two daughters, Mila and Anto, they took their first trip abroad, to Japan. That journey left an indelible mark on their imagination: the aesthetics of emptiness, compositional cleanliness, and the stillness contained in every architectural gesture. They told the architects, with a smile, “We’d like to feel as if we were living inside a Japanese museum.” But they did not mean the solemnity of the museum as an institution, but rather that type of space where time slows down, where light filters gently, where silence becomes tangible.

And that is what HW Studio tried to do. In a neighborhood with no remarkable views, except for a tree-lined plaza that offered shade and breeze, they decided to orient the architecture toward that freshness. But they did not do so frontally. They avoided large glazed surfaces that might intensify the heat. Instead, they proposed an oblique, angled relationship that allows the presence of the plaza to be sensed without being fully exposed to the heavy sunlight. The act of dwelling is framed indirectly, as if the house were observing at a diagonal, modestly—letting only the wind and the fragrance of the not-so-distant sea pass through.

They placed the larger program—the bedrooms, garage, and service areas—at the base, and above it, they suspended a light, double-height box containing the social areas. This strategy allowed them to raise social life above street level, surround it with air, and open it toward the trees and the salty breeze that crosses the plaza. The elevated patios act as terraces for contemplation—small platforms from which to better breathe the scent of flowers and hear the murmur of wind among the treetops. The bedrooms are organized around a patio, seeking silence and air. Here, intimacy is expressed through enclosure—not as confinement, but as an interior world. A curved wall receives the visitor gently, marking a welcoming threshold, while a tree greets you like a floral arrangement. The house does not look toward the neighborhood; it turns inward, like someone seeking refuge. But it does not close itself off: it opens to the sky, the shade, the plaza. Everything is arranged so that living happens in a slower, fuller way—more open to the invisible.

The materiality was inevitably tactile and sensory. Whiteness dazzles under the coastal sun, while concrete—heavy, honest—absorbs the light with delicacy. It is a concrete that becomes warm through use and time. In this material, light does not bounce; it settles. Casa Tao is, ultimately, an architecture born of the desire to inhabit the world with greater attention. It is a house that withdraws discreetly and offers its spaces as atmospheres for contemplation and memory. In it, dwelling becomes a form of study, of pause, of gratitude. Every corner invites one to remain, not to pass through, and every shadow is a promise of well- being.

This deliberate search for shade—as refuge and poetic quality—brings us closer to a spatial understanding similar to that described by Junichirō Tanizaki in 'In Praise of Shadows'. There, Tanizaki does not celebrate darkness as the absence of light, but as a subtler way of seeing. In his text, shadow is not an obstacle, but a veil that ennobles—a way of amplifying the depth of things, of allowing beauty to emerge slowly, with humility. So too with this house: it is not illuminated assertively, but lets the penumbra suggest; it allows light to filter in without violence, and each space becomes a nuanced, contained sensory experience in which time thickens and life grows quiet.

About HW Studio

HW Studio is an architecture studio that emerged in a time of great violence in Mexico, with the purpose of creating spaces that evoke and promote threatened peace. The firm's design process focuses on the deep study and understanding of what they call the three universes: the universe of the future inhabitant, the universe of the place, and our own inner universe as designers.

This proposal seeks to move away from arbitrary and egocentric decisions to foster appreciation for what is truly important in life, eliminating the superfluous in architecture to achieve moments of inner peace through conscious contemplation. They conceive and strive for architecture that can calm the mind and immerse us in silence, where a small glimmer of peace can be found.

The name "HW Studio" comes from the combination of two letters: the letter H is considered the silent letter in Spanish, thus graphically representing silence; the letter W comes from the Japanese concept Wabi Cha, a concept they prefer not to try to explain, as language is the enemy of deep understanding.

Photo credit: Gustavo Quiroz - Hugo Tirso Domínguez - César Belio